what is the purpose of a control in a scientific experiment?

Answer 1

Lets say you’re testing a new drug. You give 10 people the new drug and you give 10 people a placebo (harmless fake). Eight of the people getting the new drug get better. Eight of the people getting the placebo also get better. So…you can’t really demonstrate that the new drug had any effect at all, can you?…since people just get better on their own at the same rate or because they benefit from the attention of believing that they might be getting a useful drug. The control is a test of what happens when you do nothing. You need one for comparison.

Let’s say you’re testing whether a new teaching method works. You teach 10 kids to read with a new method and 10 kids with the old method (control group). Both groups show improvement over the year, but one group shows much more improvement than the other. Having a control group allows you to compare the methods.

Answer 2

A control is the one out of ten things that doesn't get experimented on. If it were a pill, that one person would receive a fake pill (placebo). So out of all 10 similiar participants, you would know that this 1 would have no affects.

You should rent the movie "Control" w/ Ray Liotta...

Answer 3

the purpose of administration in a scientific test is which you quite opt for to have something that's consistent interior the direction of the finished test. the administration maintains to be the comparable interior the direction of the finished test and not transformations. the administration is the priority interior the test that the guy carrying out the test keeps the comparable each of how by using and it quite is not munipulated in any way.

Answer 4

Basically, a control is supposed to do what the experiment DOESN'T do.

Answer 5

To make sure your results are reasonable.